Leaders of the G8 countries have agreed on the long-term target of at least halving their greenhouse gas emission by 2050, participants of the G8 summit said Tuesday.
"A new, shared vision by the major economies on the climate challenge within the UNFCCC framework has emerged from the G8 in Toyako," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a statement shortly after the G8 working session in northern Japan.
"We have also agreed that we should also set up mid-term targets, as the EU is already establishing for 2020," said Barroso, who was present at the working session of G8 summit.
Group of Eight (G8) leaders pose for a photograph in front of bamboo for Japan's traditional star festival during a social event at the Windsor Hotel Toya in Toyako Town, Hokkaido, Japan, on Monday, July 7, 2008. From left to right, the leaders are Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, U.S. President George W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission. Japanese Prime Minsiter Yasuo Fukuda, playing host to the G8 summit, said that the leaders of the world's major industrialized nations have agreed to push for the G8 emission cut target to become that of the world.
Barroso said he was happy about the results of the summit as "the European Union benchmark for success at the summit has been achieved" and that it sent "a strong signal to citizens around the world."
"We remain on track to reach a global climate deal in Copenhagen in 2009," he added, referring to the next major international conference on climate change expected in the Danish capital late next year.
However, the G8 group has yet to set a target for the mid term reduction of greenhouse gase emission by 2020.
Source:Xinhua
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